Transcripts For CNNW The 20240704

Welcome to the whole story. You may have noticed dining out right now is different than it was before the pandemic. For one, there are fewer restaurants. An estimated 70,000 fewer since covid 19. Higher prices and sometimes added Service Charges that many restaurants say our final to keep them running. More restaurants are Offering Takeout and delivery services. Restaurant and had to adapt and evolve in order to survive. One of the establishments that didnt survive was bobby flays longtime new york restaurant got two. He close the doors days after the lockdown began and that Experience Led him to think about who made it through the pandemic and why. Over the next hour bobby flay takes us to restaurants around the country from oregon to kentucky to new york and introduces us to some of the leading chefs and experts say that dining out has changed for good. March 2020. States are shutting down restaurants. That is a sector that has switched off overnight. Like so many in the restaurant industry, chris bianca was blindsided by the totality of the pandemic. Many of our restaurants around the country are closed and many of us may not reopen. When you look at big moments like that, how do you face it, what do you do . The guy who started his pizza joint in the back of a pizza store had expanded to four restaurant in phoenix, arizona. There we go. There it is. The first time i showed up at your place, the mactre d was telling people, shut up, its four hours. I know youre used to this but thats a remarkable thing to have, people waiting on line for four hours for years and years to eat pizza all of a sudden the pandemic hits and what you guys do . Its like a movie we never could have imagined. I didnt have a strategy. We werent able to go to work or order food. No food in the Grocery Store, bigbox stores are frantically trying to make deals with these guys. By the end of march 2020, financial losses and Employee Burnout had taken a toll. Today will be the last day of limited seating in our restaurants. We never close. In retrospect would have been the smarter move. Nobody knew what to do . Nobody knew what to do. Our business was already on the ropes. My purview showed me we were running out of a very archaic system. In new york city, chef troy was equally shaken when the bottom fell out. We shut our doors and i had to quickly think of ways to recover. Business had been booming at the hotspot in the citys meatpacking neighborhood. We are here on a weekday, the place is packed. Crazy. Always. Always. Cant wait to show you some tricks. I want to see some of my favorite dishes. This is where our noodles are made, we have a rice cooker here. All of these, kimchi is the topping for everything. And the broth we make here. This goes for 16 to 18 hours. Oh my god we were doing our highest sales ever, i planned to open three more shops, we were is static, we were killing it. The pandemic hits, within a week it drops to 50 of sales and then almost 0. My heart sank. According to the National Restaurant association, 110,000 restaurants close by the end of 2020. Many of them, permanently. What about staffing . It was extremely difficult. I have my core team. We were the ones working. We cooked every single day. We were running everything with no hourly staff. Back in phoenix the Staffing Shortage forced chris to cut the hours at his for restaurants. For me to write, we are closing early tonight or we are closed today, you know, it doesnt make economic sense. We cant pay everybody and it be viable for them and us. More than three decades of restaurants were lost. We were used to the retail model but i realized we had to quickly change that to something more digital. So we partnered up with a company and basically we were making meals that people could reheat at home. A Subscription Service where people order 5 to 10 meals and it gets delivered. We were getting a check every single week. And it really helped us get through the pandemic. We had to change our entire Business Model to make that work. Now we are doing over 15,000 meals a week on that platform. What . Its now such a big part of my business and i realized its not a restaurant, it is a brand. Not only are we selling on cook unity, we are selling kimchi online, so thats how i revisited the whole model of the business. Really give that a little mix . Joy was able to reopen mok bar after two months but its not the restaurant it was before the pandemic. You dont even have counter seats. We have full service. I decided we would do Quick Service in our sales have gone up. What you put in those . Soy sauce and rice vinegar. I have over 100 employees. Right now the focus is making sure everyones mouths are fed. Chef bianca struggled with the changing times. Weve got to figure it out. We are doing sauce packets, now we are takeout restaurant. Takeout only, thats all we could do. It was busy. But busy is such not the parameter for wellness. With his Restaurant Operating at half capacity, he had no choice but to pivot. Focusing on other parts of his business. Welcome to durham. If you can create things that have some stability in your life like luckily i have a tomato business. How old is that . About 12 years. Its our little diner, paintings of my dads up on the wall. And then, he took a huge risk. We opened up in los angeles during the pandemic. We have good people and use good things, Pretty Simple stuff. Ive got to eaps before i go. , on, man. How has it been in l. A. . Its about six years old i mean its brandnew but its almost 3 years out for the pandemic. People show up here every day. Its crazy. In the middle of the pandemic i said we are going to do something in downtown l. A. You definitely picked a challenge. Good restaurants go anywhere. They will find you. Totally, yeah. What is the story . This is the story. I dont tell nobody but now they now, we dont charge extra for it but you can do it half and half, you can do half rosa and half marinara. Thats nice. The pizza legend said hes uncertain about the future but thats the business. I think we are adjusting to it, still. You think the business is more challenging Post Pandemic than it was prior to the pandemic . We are more aware of it now. What is your future . My future is presumptuous. I prepare myself for tomorrow every day. When we come back people across the country have reached out like what are you doing, how did you do that . Directv sports central gives you access to every game. But terry doesnt have directv. Come on. Work for dad here. Now, you can find the game easy. My barbecue is saved get in the redzone with sports pack. Call 1800directv my barbecue is ruined. Woman why did we choose safelite . Vo for us, driving around is the only way we can get our baby to sleep, so when our windshield cracked, we needed it fixed right. We went to safelite. Com. Theres no one else wed trust. Their experts replaced our windshield, and recalibrated our cars advanced safety system. They focus on our safety. So we can focus on this little guy. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. 5 all you can eat pancakes are back to celebrate ihops 65th anniversary. So come on in. Even if its your birthday, too. Available for a limited time only at ihop. Download the app and start earning free food. How are you guys doing . Hi, how are you. Its a tuesday afternoon. An acclaimed russian inspired restaurant in portland, oregon. Before the dinner rush, the staff gathers in one of the dining rooms. This is quarter one, first three months of 2023 we are looking at. But they are not going over the dinner specials. What is meaningful is when you look at the percentage of sales comparative to last year. Its a huge jump. There and a meeting with the owners who are discussing the restaurant finances. One of the things that you guys do that i havent seen a lot of is that you share your p l statements with your employees. Why . When you are faced with something catastrophic and it turns your house upside down, you cant go back you cant really put the house back together. We have retained eight employees and had to terminate 48 others. As Staff Shortages escalate during the pandemic, the husbandandwife team reimagine their Business Model to address employee and equity. We were looking at the humanity of what we are doing and what our employees are facing. They all lift with each other. The Dining Room Managers and general managers are making less than the servers and bartenders. When you go back and you reenter this atmosphere again, you realize, we have an opportunity to change things. In 2022 the morale assisted away with tips instead charging a service fee. The added Health Insurance at a Profit Sharing program. Three times a year, they open their books to the staff. We are looking at all of the sources of sales and how we break them up. We want to make sure that there is that transparency, like theres no way that we are walking away benefiting from this change. You guys charge 22 service charge. How do you utilize it, to pay your employees, is that it . We have a fixed starting wage our lowest hourly rate is 25 an hour. No matter where you work in the restaurant and it goes up from there. And we use the 22 service fee to help offset those costs because our total labor costs are far more than the 22 service fees. Ive been in this business for a long time. We have occupancy costs, you have labor costs, and you have cost of goods, right, those are the three big buckets but, basically what you are saying is, you probably have a 20 to 25 shortfall when it gets right down to it, and you need the consumer to pay for the shortfall because thats the way the business is, is that fair . Another way to think about it is not places that rely on tips are basically subsidizing the wages. Theyre just buckets of money coming in, money going out and you can rearrange it anyway you want. In some ways you are asking the customer to subsidize the rate . You could say, lets just fold it in. I will ask you the obvious question. Why dont you just raise the prices . Well thats because since we are in outlier, people you know, at the end of the day, people price shop, you know, you think perception . Its all about optics. Any pushback from your customers about this . So minimal its not even worth counting. Obviously its positive. The owners include a link on the menu that provides guests with more information about their new Business Model. Obviously theres two sides of the coin. Some customers think that they should not be charging the service charge. Other restaurants say its 22 because otherwise im going to close and also please tell. It runs all over the place. So the bottom line is, theres probably no definitive right way to do this. And i believe, this is just my personal opinion, we are literally half a generation away from people paying what restaurants need to cost. Somebody who 16 or 17 who hasnt started paying their own prices yet, i believe when they get to the age of when they will start start pay their own bills, the Sticker Shock is not going to be Sticker Shock. It will be the norm but we have to get to that point. So everything just cost so much more and you want to stay in business and you want your employees to do well and also youd like to make a living yourself. Basically, the Restaurant Business as we know it is fractured in many ways. Yeah, i mean the thing is, if places like ours dont do this, we are going to see a huge regression in the kind of food that we are able to provide for people. Is this working for you guys from a financial standpoint . Yeah, weve been doing it more than a year and we have felt really great about how this is going. We are still profitable , we are still you know, busy. Are your employees happy . We have great retention. Everyone, its bobby. How are you guys doing . What are you making . Herring under a for code . Hearing under a for code . Yeah. We have singlehandedly increase the Herring Consumption in portland by threefold. We do want to share more of the culture and the cuisine with people. We have the vodka that we Just Launched a few years ago so we are trying to build that up. This is the place to be for some vodka, right . Yeah. We do poor a lot of vodka here. Are most popular infusion, you should taste this, is our horseradish vodka. Is this your own brand . Its our own brand. I would encourage you to mix that in, let it melt and create its own sauce. We also sell our dumplings frozen for retail. We have a small but mighty dumpling production space upstairs. Right now we are just in the Portland Metro area and we are looking to expand that. Is that since the pandemic . You have to find new revenue streams. This is all under the same Business Model and the same structure. Everyone who works at kachka whether it be in part vodka or dumpling preparation. When you see the p l you also see how many bottles of vodka. Thats part of it. This is something we feel passionate about. Thats one of the most encouraging things. People across the country have reached out like what are you doing, how did you make that jump . You think this is a Natural Evolution . I feel like this is a sea change in the restaurant industry. Welcome back. We are just running our restaurant. Coming up, all of a sudden you guys have this demand that comes out of nowhere. What do you do . My barbecue is saved get in the redzone with sports pack. Call 1800directv my barbecue is ruined. Who needs that much more tide . He does. Were having triplets. No, what does that mean . 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I know, but im still winning so, it is a competition. Save 50 on the sleep Number Limited Edition smart bed. Plus, 36month financing on select smart beds. Shop now only at sleep number. Okay, so during the pandemic as restaurants were closing, Online Delivery Services were skyrocketing. Im about to take a drive with one of them. I want to see how they get it done. Lets go. Lets do it. Kofi godfrey is the Chief Marketing Officer for doordash. The pandemic hits, nobody knows whats going on. Im in the Restaurant Business. We are panicking like everybody else. We dont know what to do. You start getting phone calls, thats my guess . Correct. Those first three weeks were super chaotic. It wasnt clear if food delivery was even allowed by the regulations but we knew right away restaurant for going to need platforms like ours to taking away the Commission Rate allows us to maintain our margins at a time when all of our other avenues are shut off. We closed for 17 days initially. When we reopen, delivery only. It was a lifeline. How much more doordash business are you doing versus what you are doing prior . Its around double. We had to do a small remodel to accommodate the number of orders that we were getting. We need more space so we took away some of the seating that the guests had. Wow, these are heavy. Good luck, you guys. So you are the Chief Marketing Officer of doordash. You still go on these runs sometimes . What is that about . It allows you to understand whats happening at the restaurant that you might be picking up from so this is part of our culture. It reminds me of one of the things my father said to me early on. He said if you want to be the boss, you have to know everybodys job. 100 . Talk a little about how the dashes get paid. I think people are concerned about making sure that they get their tips . Mark doordash and other apps have faced years of scrutiny from Labor Activists over the compensation and treatment of delivery workers. And drivers have filed lawsuits over unfair pay. Its really straightforward. So we went on a dashed today. I open the app. Did you get a tip . I did. I open the app i get an offer it says hey, theres an order, i choose whether to accept or decline based on what its showing to me. In the accept mode it tells me this is the minimum im going to make. That accounts for what doordash is going to pay. Do i disorder, yes or no, i choose that yes, if the customer tips, 100 of the tips go to me as a dasher. Some cities have enacted minimum pay standards for Delivery Drivers. In places like such laws that arent in place, doordash recently said drivers will now have the option to earn a prorated hourly minimum rate in addition to tips. But doordash and others recently sued new york city over the minimum pay for Delivery Drivers. So the battle for fair pay for drivers continues. You are telling me before that you guys are up year over year, even though the pandemic has subsided. Obviously tons of people see that and they want to get in your business, too, how do you differentiate yourself . We try and do a good job of covering most of the country. I think its 90 of the country, doordash is available, which is nuts. Thats a lot. More than half 1 million restaurants on the platform. Despite the growth of doordash and other food delivery giants, many investors are concerned about longterm profitability. Doordash is still tweaking their Business Model. We are finding more and more restaurants are interested in building their own first party platforms. What weve done is built a product called storefront that allows you to plug and play online ordering for your own website with zero commission. Ive been in the Restaurant Business for 30 years. I started out as a line cook. You learn how to adapt every 10 seconds. That is the job. The job is agility. It didnt even rattle us. Its like left, no good, weve got to go right. It is crazy. How have you seen restaurants change permanently, you know, from the pandemic . Today what we see is quite different, most restaurants understand that they need to have a Digital Solution restaurants like chipotle, the fast casual chain, in 2020, their Digital Sales skyrocketed by 174 , yearoveryear. The big transition for us was new customers started experiencing aaa for the first time, through the digital channel. The team member knows ive got digital orders coming in. Kurt gardner is the chief Technology Officer at chipotle. Digital is about 20 of our sales coming into pandemic and that rose 80 of our sales during the pandemic. The brands mobile app has driven Digital Sales. Just selecting menu, we can go right to an entrce. We just saw good news, your order is ready. The company tilt out drive through lanes, chipotle lanes, exclusively for digital ordering. In a traditional drive through express, you are in the lane for 4 to 5 minutes, the average window time at chipotle is 15 seconds. I think the advantage that chipotle had going into the pandemic was really the superpower of our Digital Kitchens. We were prepared for the volume. There we go. What is a Digital Kitchen without some ai . Chipotle is testing out a robot that helps prepare their famous chips. Talking to the restaurant team, its one of the areas they said they could use the most help. We are excited where we are right now. Ahead this is not the food i think about when i think about louisville cuisine. Switching things up in derby city. The thought of getting screened for colon cancer made me queasy. But now ive found a way thats right for me. Feels more easy. My doc and i agreed. I pick the time. Todays a good day. I screened with cologuard and did it my way cologuard is a oneofa kind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for cologuard. I did it my way known as a passionate artist. Known for loving the outdoors. Known for getting everyone together. No one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be. Keytruda is known to treat cancer. Fdaapproved for 16 types of cancer, including certain earlystage cancers. One of those cancers is triplenegative Breast Cancer. Keytruda may be used with Chemotherapy Medicines as treatment before surgery and then continued alone after surgery when you have earlystage Breast Cancer and are at high risk of it coming back. Keytruda can cause your Immune System to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment. This may be severe and lead to death. 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Work for dad here. Now, you can find the game easy. My barbecue is saved get in the redzone with sports pack. Call 1800directv my barbecue is ruined. We are here in louisville, kentucky. Its actually where all the houses used to be. Interestingly, Restaurant Tour cat mcdowell decided to open up a Vegetable Restaurant to go against the grain, so to speak. Im so excited to come to nacve. We just renovated. The place is beautiful. If you looked at a map of america and you said louisville. Right there. Yes. I was like where do i find a good salad. Like a good vegetable. Not easy. I think i needed to bring agriculture, local agriculture to an affordable price point. I ordered a 10 by 10 tent with a custom logo on it off of some website and i met a couple of farmers, pitched the my idea and set up shop. Thats really the beginning of nacve. And i was only doing marketing on social media. Within a month i had a line wrapped around the block. You also had outside seating . We also had outside. This is beautiful. We finished this renovation about two years ago. It seats an additional 100 people. The summer of 2020, cities like louisville fees and shortened the processing time for Outdoor Dining applications helping restaurants get back on their feet. Lets buy some Picnic Tables at home depot and serve food outside. And everyone loved it. I think we see that a lot of that has happened to Restaurant Owners, once they saw that, people really wanted to sit outside. Did it change the way you looked at business . Im a first time Business Owner. I truly dont know what im doing im trying to navigate this new world of not eating in a restaurant but owning a restaurant and keeping people employed. I applied to take this Business Course and im like how can i increase my top line and reduce my bottom line. What does this word mean on the spreadsheet . Education is the most powerful thing you can have. All right, cool. This is like a new york city kitchen. This is our executive chef, drew. Good to see you, chef. What are you making . Rahman sicily. How has it been for you guys down here since the pandemic . We retained a pretty good staff. Pretty much every one of the Staff Members have grown within the company and their working manager position. I think that pandemic has been a wakeup call for how you schedule and hire staff. We are learning how to do more with less and that is the key. Chef, that smells really good. Im really looking forward to this. Is a cocktail time . Do you want to grab a drink . I would love it. This is our open one way. Its a riff on a paper plane. We do ours with japanese whiskey and blood orange. You are in the town of urban and you are going away from the bourbon. What separates us is that we do something different. I love that. This looks really refreshing. You dont consider this fine dining . I really wanted to make a space that anyone could come in, any time of day, lets put produce at the front of every single plate. And i think it has resonated within the community. So i read that during the pandemic you really turned her place into a market almost. Like a corner market. We transformed the entire restaurant into a bodega, and takeout and delivery within 24 hours. Theres no other Grocery Store within this area of downtown. Something that kentuckians dont really hear about. They are like, what is a bodega . They would see tortilla chips, we were doing frozen burritos. Anything that you can imagine to keep the ship afloat. We were partnering with nonprofits every week, doing lunch specials, we were going live on social media. All of our specials are going to be centered around slightly healthier eating habits. We make our drinks around pop culture, buy one get one free to go cocktails. 39 states allowed cocktails to go on a shortterm basis in 2020. Today, 22 states plus d. C. Have legalized to go cocktails permanently. What about the delivery costs, did that become an issue at all . We were doing delivery and house which meant, myself. People were like, arent you the Business Owner like im the Delivery Driver today. But thats what it takes to succeed in a small business. Why do you think that youve been able to survive . I just thought i can pivot, i dont know, i guess other restaurants pivot, too. Isnt that what you are supposed to do . You decided to open another restaurant after all of this . How is it different than nacve . During the pandemic, its a great time because theres a bunch of opportunities. If a space had not been touched for over 50 years, again, built out another kitchen. The new Restaurant Seats about 200 people. Theres three dining rooms. Two bars. Is this your first time in . Things are changing so much in terms of the better. It so beautiful and unexpected. Im starving. This looks great. This is our rahman that drew prepared. Are snap peas have White Chocolate and brown butter. If somebody who comes from new york, this is not the louisville cuisine that i think of but muchneeded. Yeah. I think we fill a big void in the market. That is killer. Up next it just pops open. The future of Ghost Kitchens. 800 agree pizza. Lets go eat. Thats service way we want it. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Gives you access to every game. But terry doesnt have directv. Come on. Work for dad here. Now, you can find the game easy. My barbecue is saved get in the redzone with sports pack. Call 1800directv my barbecue is ruined. Jardiance its a little pill with a big story to tell. I take oncedaily jardiance, at each days staaart. As time went on it was easy to seee. Im lowering my a1c. Jardiance works 24 7 in your body to flush out some sugar and for adults with Type 2 Diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. Jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and Genital Yeast or urinary tract infections. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, and dont take it if youre on dialysis. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Jardiance is really swell, the little pill with a big story to tell. 5 all you can eat pancakes are back to celebrate ihops 65th anniversary. So come on in. Even if its your birthday, too. Available for a limited time only at ihop. Download the app and start earning free food. I just landed in Raleigh Durham at the airport. Definitely a little hungry. Im going to make my way over to the virtual food hall. Lets see how these Ghost Kitchens are working in airports. It seems like a good idea. If i was just walking by here. Im not sure i would know that this was going to be about food. Its got that sleek look, it says locker number 1, locker the Phrase Ghost Kitchen entered the public lexicon at the height of the pandemic. These kitchens with no store front or dining areas were lifelines for the restaurant industry. Im jason. Jason johnson, an entrepreneur and, sort of, Ghost Kitchen guru, runs the which opened in 2022. So, we are here. You have pizza. I know this pizza concept, very thin crust. We have a margarita pizza. Peppers. You dont see that in airports very much. Thats cool. Years ago in new york city, there was a point youve heard of this the automat. You put the money in and youd open the thing and youd take out your sandwich. Hi. You know youre the first face that smiled at me today. This is a scratch kitchen. We cut produce fresh. We make pico. We fry chips. We make wings. Theres actually real humans back there doing the same thing that happens in normal restaurants all around the world. But we can actually operate almost 40 less staff. How many different Food Concepts are in this . In this raleigh location, we have 12. So, theyre all listed right here. We have National Brands like pay way, zen burger, 800 degree pizza. We also brought in local brands. Normally 20 to 30 of the Ghost Kitchen Menu is local operations. You are a chef by trade. Yes. Reporter looked at your resume. I did my research. How did you transition from running the line of these highend restaurants to being in the Ghost Kitchen Airport Business . I wanted to give back to entrepreneurs so started a Company Called hub kitchens, helping underserved, beginning kitchens and created an incubator for entrepreneurs to come rent the space by the hour. That ingenuity caught the attention of david freeman. As we were coming out of covid, we were trying to reimagine our entire program. Most of the restaurants were closed, similar to streetside at the Ghost Kitchen. We really liked that because we didnt need from the of the house people. He called me up and said, hey, do you think you can take multiple concepts and shove it into one box. I said, sure, why not . In the process they are the largest Ghost Kitchen operator in the world, with vessels all around the world. So, we partnered up. The vessels hes talking about are essentially Food Trailers powered by reef technology, a Company Based out of miami, florida. By 2021, reef had expanded to 5,000 Parking Sites worldwide, where they install trailers where cooks prepare Restaurant Delivery orders. There are many still around, but postpandemic, as restaurants reopen, reef was forced to share their nonunprofitable food vessels and change course. They developed a new Business Model, licensing its ghost Kitchen Technology to Third Party Companies like stadiums and airports, such as rdu. Now that the pandemic has subsided, how do you feel about it now . Lots of good five star reviews. A lot of good reviews, a lot of repeat customers. They can order in the tsa security line, and get it. If youre a pilot, you can order and get your food as youre leaving. This is where all the magic happens. This is pretty much the Central Station here. All 12 brands are being produced by our staff down there. She is collectively pulling everything required for that check to go out. So, we do branded products. They have a branded cup. Is that ours . Yes, it is. Youll see, as she places it in, itll change colors. Thats the locker acknowledging that it shows, hey, we know you put something in here. Wow, thats amazing. And shes going to punch in your specific code. 339092, enter. Just pops open. Just pops open like that. I can smell my grilled cheese. I got my dirty chi. And i got my 800 degree pizza. All right. This is the grilled cheese. Whats the name of the place . American meltdown. American meltdown, right. This is my kind of sandwich. Im from new york. So, bacon, egg, and cheese is like thats our goto thing. This is good. I like the crusty bread. Its really well toasted. Bacon is crispy. The egg is cooked nicely. Who is training everybody to do this stuff . Each one of the brands we license, they supply us with their recipes, their techniques, and we get trained. And if you dont have time to order food at the kiosk, dont worry. I can actually order some dessert right at my gate. Im going to order a couple of cheesecakes from cheesecake factory, cookie from milk bar. Delivery type. Gate delivery . Yeah. When the pandemic hit, all us in the Food Service Industry were trying to reinvent ourselves every hour. I got phone calls, dozens a week. Im opening this Ghost Kitchen, do you want to be part of it, do you want to invest in a Ghost Kitchen . Like Everything Else that was Good Business in the pandemic, Ghost Kitchens have also lost their edge. What do you think the future of Ghost Kitchens are Going Forward . Ghost kitchens are definitely here to stay. I think the biggest thing is where theyre being utilized. Here is something living and breathing that cuts down on your time waiting in line inside airports. I definitely think as long as were solving that problem for travellers, airport Ghost Kitchens are here to stay for a very long time. You think this is sort of like the food court of the future. Yep. Thanks a lot. Have a safe flight. Thank you. Thank you very much. Reef virtual food hauls are slated to open in cincinnati and Northern Kentucky airports this year, with johnson at the helm. Everybody wants to be a chef. Everybody wants to sell moms cookies. Im giving them a place to fail successfully. Come in, learn the bumps and bruises, make the mistakes, dont lose your house, adopt lose your car, fix it, turn around, and keep going. Well, here we are back in new york city, my hometown, in a place called the meat packing district, home to lots of fun, hip, and thankfully busy restaurants. Now, youve heard over the last hour how covid just threw the Restaurant Business into a tail spin. Definitely there was challenges ahead, higher food costs, higher labor costs, inflation in general. But youve also heard about the passion and the determination from many restaurateurs to make it work. Do i think they can make it . Im betting they can. Chefs like who is planning to open her fifth restaurant this year. Im extremely excited. I have worked so hard, pivoting all the time. And its the mentality and the grit and the work ethic that really makes it count. Back in louisville, kentucky, cat mcdough opened her second restaurant this year. At least i knew what i was doing this time and i knew what didnt work and what could work. Sharing everything. Thank you. Bonnie in portland, oregon, still sees staff morale as the key to success in the restaurant biz. Couple weeks ago, we took some of our Management Team to georgia on a Research Trip to share what we know from growing up eating that food. I want everyone here to be passionate about what theyre doing with us. Its been fun. Its been a really special place. And phoenix pizza king is finding his way at his newest location in los angeles. I talked to a lot of our friends in the business, and i feel like the sentiment lately has been even more so than the last five years. Its almost impossible to make a profit in this business. Do you feel that way . I do feel that way. Cost just went up. They didnt go down. Yeah. I think its just getting new questions, searching for new answers. Youre just going to keep making food . Just keep making food. You know what . I still love it. Chef chris bianco appears to be holding his own and just opened a stand alone pizza spot just steps away from his restaurant in downtown los angeles. He and the other Restaurant Owners featured in this hour say theyre continuing to adapt their Business Models to keep their establishments running. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. Ill see you next sunday. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com martin there is a minute fraction of a percent of human beings that just arent wired right. Its not because theyre not sane. He was an intelligent human being, fairly wellspoken. I dont think theres any any doubt about his sanity. This was just a vile human being